OverDrive - OverDrive - August 19, 2025 - Hour 1

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Join Michael DiStefano and Frank Corrado for Hour 1 on OverDrive! We dive into Tommy Pham’s antics during the Pirates 5-2 win over the Jays. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Noah Hiles joins the show to discuss Paul Skenes performance. Frankie hands out his list of the five biggest US Olympic Orientation Camp snubs.

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Overdrive off and running. It is Tuesday, August 18th. Mike DeSepno filling in for Brian Hayes, Frank Carrado, my guy with me for the next three hours. We're up on TSN 1050, TSN2, and live up on YouTube. What's happening, pal? What's up, buddy? Great to be back. Nice to see you. It's been a while.

It gives a little bit of like leaf lunch vibes. Yeah, a little throwback to the old days, LL. Every once in a while, Julia needed the day off. Come in, fill in, it's all good. Nice to hang out. I was thinking about you recently, actually. Why is that? I don't know why this has happened,

but do you find that your Twitter algorithm will just randomly go through like phases of things that pop up all the time? Like, I'll give you an example. when, and this is nothing to do with what I like or what I bookmark, but Sidney Sweeney with those American Eagle jeans was all over my timeline. Everywhere I looked, it was, it was there no matter what. The Coldplay CEO guy was everywhere. But you couldn't avoid it.

No. So certain things happen and you're like, okay, this is filling up my timeline right now. And in the last week or so, all I'm seeing is people fighting on cruise ships. And I don't know why this is happening. I'm not seeking this out. I'm not looking for people fighting on cruise ships. I'm not. Have you been looking into a cruise?

Because you know how the internet works where it's like if you put in your Google search, all of a sudden everything you're looking up on the internet, it's going to send you some cruise stuff. No offense. The last thing I'm looking up is to go on a cruise. I'm not a cruise person. I'm kind of offended. I'm not going to lie.

I don't want to offend you, but that's where I'm at with cruises. But for some reason, man, I just see people brawling. on carnival cruises right now and they're swinging and they're, it's by the pool, it's in like the buffet lines and are like, are you okay when you go on these things? Is there fights? What's going on?

Here's the thing. Like I've witnessed one time where there's actually been an altercation that's reached to the point where people are slugging each other. One time have I actually seen it on a cruise. I mean, I've never been to Carnival. I know everyone, you know, when Hayes and Luke come on like, oh, he's on a Carnival cruise. what a clown. I'm not the Cardival Cruz guy. I usually

go on Royal Caribbean or MSC or one of those two is usually the spots that I cruise with. But there was one time in the dining hall of all places, the dining hall. Everyone's sitting down, having your nice family dinners. And there was one family. I don't know what the hell happened, but all of a sudden, a

brawl breaks out between like three guys. I think it was like a brother and a brother in-in-law. So it's in-family fighting happening. That's that's the one thing that I've I mean, there's some stuff. When people get a little, you know, get a little, little liquored up. And obviously, you know, sometimes at the casino, there's some shouting with people.

I mean, I've been, I've been in the middle of that for sure. I've been at some tables when people don't play properly. I'm a big blackjack guy. My father, same thing. He gets, he gets a little more over. Let me just go on that tangent really quick, okay. If you're playing at like $5 tables or $10 tables, they don't have that anymore. They don't have that anymore.

You're $25 tables. No, you try to go to. a casino nowadays. It's at least $25. That's the minimum. That's Vegas, for sure. I didn't know if on like a cruise, they still had cheap tables. You could find some, but there are a few. If you're playing $10 hands and a guy decides

he wants to hit on a $16, so be it man. Like, what do you expect? You're playing at the $10 table, but you start playing at the $50 table and guys are pulling stunts like that. I can understand being a little upset when you take the dealer's 10. For sure. And that's why, you know, if you're smart, you don't play at those tables. But sometimes you don't have

any other options. Like that's, that's all that's out there is like a cheaper table. But also, those tables aren't available some days, and you got to go and sit on a $25 table or $50 table even sometimes. And you got people pulling nonsense, splitting tens, you know, they're hitting on bus cards. There's some nonsense that happens at the blackjack table. Things can get out of hand there. I've never seen a physical altercation.

But you're safe. But verbally, there's been some verbal jousting, I will say, at the very least. But, yeah, I haven't witnessed an actual brawl. at the tables. But it happens. I've seen those videos. And the Cardiffel Cruz is known for that. It's like some kind of epidemic right now, man,

where it's just like, here's another one and there's a brawl happening. It's hot, confined spaces. Lots of alcohol. People are lucid up drinking. People are eating too much. Maybe they haven't taken a dump in like three days. I don't know, man.

But that's what's going on on my Twitter feed. That's funny. I wasn't really thinking about, you know, me getting into the fights. Fecal matter thing. That part. Yeah, I was thinking about that, but that just kind of popped in. Anyways, I'm glad you're okay. You haven't been on a cruise in a while. No, I was, when I go, my like, June, not too far off.

Actually, I took a phone call no more than 20 minutes ago. I did get a call from my father. Apparently, he was invited to a cruise, like, in two weeks. And he's like, hey, what are you doing? You off? I'm like, ah, week one of the NFL season. We've got some picks to make that week, so I won't be able to take the time off. because I think we'll be ready to go to start making some picks.

The NFL's coming close. NFL's coming up. I wonder this. Like if Kegan Matheson and Tommy Fam were on a carnival cruise, who swings first? Higin or Tommy? Tommy. Tommy's swinging first. That guy's looking for fights.

After a bat flip on a four, like it was a four pitch walk. I don't understand what went through that guy. He's a loose cannon. Like he's kind of always been a bit. a bit of a weirdo, et cetera. Remember there was that situation a couple years ago where him and Mike Trout got into it because of something to do of fantasy football,

like Trout picked up some guy off the waiver wire and fantasy football? Like Tommy Fam, last night in the game against Pittsburgh Pirates, who were showing it here on TSN right now, literally a backflip after a four-pitch walk and then turns around and just starts Beacon Tyler Heineman and walks back to the catcher.

And Heidman's like, I wasn't talking to you. Yeah, and after the game, they're asking Hyaman, Like, oh, what happened with fan? Would you say to him? I didn't say anything to the guy. I just turned around and started charging at me. Like, I don't understand what the hell is going on with that guy. Not in the lineup tonight, though.

Because not in the lineup. Because there was a Scherzer fastball coming in at 95 right at his kneecaps today. Guaranteed. You think? And it's coming Wednesday. Like, it's happening at some point. I don't think you can just do that. And we know the code in baseball.

Like, it was coming today. Well, it might just hold them out. Like, there's two more games in the series. You might just hold them out. This is what I was thinking, watching that last night. Like, first of all, take your base. Okay, second of all, what do you get an all worked up about? You play for the pirates.

20 games below 500. And you're worked up because the catcher mumbled something and you thought it was directed towards you? It probably wasn't. Like, when you're playing sports, you get frustrated at yourself, sometimes a teammate. You're not always saying something derogatory

towards the player you're playing against. So, Heimann can say whatever he wants. Bam can have his reaction. action, but it kind of just looked, I don't know, look. He was looking for something, man. He was looking for something. And I don't know why he was looking for something. He said that it might have had something to do with one of the pitches and possibly

Heinemann may have said something under his breath about one of the four balls that he got, thought maybe it should have been a strike. Great, big deal. That happens all the time. It's not like he said your pants look stupid or your swing socks or anything like that. But he didn't even say it to Pham. I mean, fam just good eye laid off it. It was probably, it was more so the umpire behind him.

And he's thinking, man, that second one was a strike, right? Like that wasn't direct, that wouldn't have been directed to Tommy Pham, who had been directed to the guy behind him. Like, it really was just nonsense. You know what's really stupid too is the fact that Kagan tweeted something out after the game. Kegan didn't tag Tommy Pham in the tweet. So obviously, whether someone sent it to him or he types his name in on Twitter after games to see what people are talking about, like he replied.

to Keegan Matheson's tweet, and he said something along the lines of, like, I know the strike zone. Like, he's a young guy. I'm an older guy. I've been around. I know the strike zone. Okay, bro, if you know the strike zone, like maybe you'd have an OPS higher than 700, and maybe it wouldn't have been on your 10th team in the last 12 years. Yeah. Give me a break. So, yeah, well, so Keegan last night tweeted Tyler Heidman told me he didn't say anything and that he was just as confused as he was about why Tommy Fam decided to charge him and the benches end up clearing

and Tommy Fam decides to quote tweet him and basically saying BSing about a ball not being called a strike to the umpire when it's clearly below the zone is always disrespectful not only to the umpire but to the hitter as well like I said when I flip the bat bleep him Keegan

dude has two years in the show I know the zone that's what he said yeah you know the zone if you knew it so well A, you wouldn't be playing for the Pirates and B, you'd be a better player. Yeah. But you know the zone. He's had a long career.

For sure, yes. He's been in the league. I didn't realize how long he's been in the league for. Tommy Fam is a guy, he's 37 years old. Yeah. But, like, to be in the league that long and to still be doing stuff like this, like, it's just a super immature moment for Tommy Fam last night.

Not a good look on baseball. But he's not in the lineup tonight, so we're not going to have to worry about any of those wild antics. I think took to Twitter after the game and made some inflation. lamentory comments toward my guy Bam Bam Barger You see what he said about Barger

But he deleted that He did delete that one He was talking about He was talking about the fact that Barger He's accusing him of using PEDs Right And was that ever like public knowledge that he did or Well he was never officially

Suspended for that But there was some sort of leave earlier I saw something on a A thread online that He missed some time Or he's placed on like a designation list, and it could have been something to do with that, but there was

never anything that was purely he was suspended for steroids, the way that, you know, like most PED people are suspended. Like, Arrelvis Martinez last year, A, Rod, Clant, like, all that stuff, right? I don't think it was anything that was ever officially no,

in the books, but still. Play ball. How about just play ball? Yeah. How about just take your base? You don't need to, like, you didn't do the Joey Bats home run in the ALDS. Who? Pips a walk. What are you thinking? I don't know.

You're 20 games below 500 and you're playing a team that has legit like World Series aspirations at this point. Mind you, that wasn't a great game for the Jays. Like there were some funky things that happened. Schneider gets ejected. You know, the Tommy Fam incident. There were a number of errors. That wasn't a game that I would say is characteristic of where the Jays have been at the last little while. But it happens.

And now they get right back at it tonight with no Tommy Fam in the lineup. No Tommy fan. But you got Max Scherzer. in the lineup for the Blue Jays and this guy's really starting to come on as of late. Like Mad Max is back. You look at his last four games. He's got at least six

innings in each of the four games. He's getting into the upper 90s in terms of pitch count, which is significant. When you look at earlier in the season, the guy couldn't throw 50 pitches without that thumb aggravating him. So now he's up to 90 seems like that thumb issue is in the past and

you know, he's striking guys out. He's got a six to one strike out to walk ratio over those four games. Like, this guy's pitching right now and takes on a not-so-great pirates, pirates offense. Who did put up some numbers yesterday. Again, errors, but still errors. Very sloppy game for the Blue Jays overall. Like a couple of, did it have three errors last night, very uncharacteristic for them.

Vladdy leads a game with an injury. He had an MRI today. How about the splits that Beth, like, I feel like we've become accustomed to it. We had that one last week, that one last week. The one where Bichette was like almost in the, basically in the outfield. It was at the edge of the outfield, yeah. And it was a great play by both parties, like Bichette to get that ball, to get it, you know, put enough on it to get it to Vladdy. And for him to get into the splits and pick it off, it was terrific.

That was crazy by Vladdy. I can't believe for a guy that size, how flexible is. I know, I know. And he's worked on it. And he's worked on it. And yeah, that's the one from last week. And then last night he had another one. We had to get down into the splits and pick off a play.

and he did, but maybe tweak something. I don't know. He had a left hamps. He left the game with left hamstring tightness. Now, they say it's precautionary. Yeah. The thing about the hamstring is...

Not in the lineup tonight. Should mention that. Yeah. Also not in the lineup tonight after that. Yeah. MRI, believe, last night. So they'll get the results at some point today. Okay, the hamstring is an interesting one

because, like, I've tweaked it, like, training in the summer. It's not something you really hurt when you play, like when you skate, but it is more of a running thing. It feels like it can get caught often. But if you take enough time off and you do it the right way, it doesn't really bother you. But if you come back too early, you'll go for a sprint and it'll snag

and you're like, oh, there's that hamstring again. But the Js have kind of built up a little bit of a luxury here that if there is something, even though it's, you know, precautionary, an MRI is probably going to come back negative or if there's something there would be very minor. Right. You can take a little bit of time off. This is not something that's going to sink the Jays.

It's not like they're living by every game right now. You have a little bit of a flexibility to just let it heal because you need Vladdy, man. Like he is, I don't know how you've been describing Vladdy the last little bit, but I remember earlier in the summer, we were talking about the lack of home runs. Guys just a ball player, man. He's just, he does it all. Tough at bats. He does a great job in the field.

Like, he's kind of just become this well-rounded, very good. good ball player, it's not all about the home runs for him. And that's more than fine because he's contributing so many different ways. Absolutely. And the power's starting to come, not necessarily in terms of him putting up Aaron Judge like home run numbers. I don't know if we'll ever see him get to that point again. But like he's putting, he's putting balls in the middle of gaps. He's legging out a bunch of doubles. So like the, the multi-base hits have been there and he's been hitting very clutch. He's got an OPS over 1100 over the last calendar months. So So the power is starting to come, but overall, like, this guy's been one of the best hitters.

You look at his statistics over the course of the last month. Like, he's number one in the American League in most offensive categories, whether it's, you know, average with runners in scoring position, OPS, overall average hits. Like, he's second behind Bichette hits. The Blue Jays have, you know, the first and second place guys in the American League when it comes to hits. So, like, the Jay's offense is, you know, they've really arrived this season overall, but He is clearly the catalyst of what's cooking there. So the Jay's better hope that it is just precautionary

and they are not going to be missing Vladimir Grover Jr. for any extended period of time and hopefully he could come back. A couple days, let him rest it up, let him go get some treatment, go to the trainer's room, rub it out, and do whatever he's got to do. And then get back for the finality of this big race. We got, what, five, six weeks left? The game gives and the game takes away, right? Like, everyone's been pretty healthy for the most part this season.

And we'll see how, you know, how it shakes out with Vladdy. But you get good news. Like, Shane Bieber, like, he's going to start. Come back Friday. Coming back Friday. Yeah. So, you know, that's a little bit of an injection, too, to see where he's at at the major league level. And gives him a pretty good runway, too, to get some starts under his belt and start to feel like.

Should get five or so starts, maybe a six start. Pretty good, man. Yeah. And like you said, like Scherzer, I don't know. know where we had the over-under at to start the year, especially dealing with the injury that he had early on. But the fact that he's healthy, pitching well, like, you're not worried about every game now, every start. Yeah, the fact that we're in August, like mid to late August, and we're having serious conversations about this guy taking the ball in game one, two, or three in a

playoff game is significant. Like, that's big. Like, that was the hope, obviously. But if you to put a Jerry's percentage on this conversation happening today back in April when the guy couldn't throw more than 50 pitches without his thumb acting up, you're probably pretty low. Like you're in the teens, 20s of that happening and now seems very

likely. You're looking at what? What are your Jerry's percentages at this point that Max Scherzer is a game one, two, or three starter? 70 something? Yeah, I think it's higher. It's probably like 84%. Yeah. I think at the start of the year when he was hurt

you probably, and I was feeling this way, a little scarred based on the way things went last year for the Jays where it almost felt like anything that could have gone wrong would go wrong and did go wrong and you're like, oh boy, here we go again, just going to be a continuation. And the script has flipped so much

to the point where, you know, Bichette and Vladie are the two best players offensively. Springer, Renaissance season. Exactly. Yeah, so much has gone well that, you know, guys like Joey, Perfito, don't even get an opportunity anymore. And he was playing so well. And you're like, that guy, that guy came out of nowhere and did

we, Addison Barger. So everything has gone well. And now you look at it and you say, you're going to milk the last little bit out of Max Scherzer. It's like, it's kind of all coming together. And you're getting a Shane Beaver start in the middle of August. And presumably he's healthy enough to keep the ball rolling. It's crazy. What a difference a year makes. It's, uh, it's good to be a Jay's fan right now. It's definitely good to be a Jay's fan. A lot of things looking positively. Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun, he's going to join us at 605,

so we'll get his thoughts on what's going on, an update potentially by then on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Noah Hiles, a Pittsburgh Pirates, beat writer will join us at 430. Get his thoughts on Skeens' start last night. And if he's had any interesting interactions with Tommy fan, because a guy who's in that locker room every day, I'd imagine there's been an altercation or two potentially,

some sort of run in with fam over the year. So I'd be excited to ask Noah how's about that. But Mike Jones, the athletic, going to join us at 505 as well. The big news of the day in the NFL, the Indianapolis Colts announced their starting quarterback. And look, I'm a Colts guy, right? Your Indianapolis Colts, my Indianapolis Colts. And they're going with Daniel Jones over Anthony Richardson. And I think it's quite significant.

the fact that they've decided that they're going to do this. I mean, they invested a massive hall into Richardson. They took him with the fourth overall draft pick. They gave him two years to develop the resources to get him to where he had to be. And they ultimately decided, now we're going to roll with Daniel Jones, who's already been a failed organization franchise quarterback elsewhere. And now they think that they're going to uncover something. I don't believe so.

But what this tells me more so than them having. Belief in Jones, there's a problem with Anthony Richardson in that locker room and with that organization. When he tapped out last year, he lost a lot of support, a lot of backers in that building. And I think him losing out into a 50-50 battle, I think supports that there's still a lot of people upset with what happened a year ago when he tapped himself out of that football game. You know what maybe tells me that it wasn't so much of a 50-50 battle is this quote right here he's the starting quarterback for the season i don't want to have a short leash on that like

what have you have you watched him play danny dimes over the course of his career you kind of know you know what he's all about at this point like i maybe there's a renaissance to be had there maybe he turns it around and he becomes the the guy that he was prior to signing that big deal like there was a moment in time where danny dimes was really slinging it but even when he signed that contract most people looked at him were like really oh a lot of people did every everyone on this show. 40 million a year for Danny Dimes? But that's the crazy thing to me. It's like,

no, this is not like a week by week type thing. We're committed to this guy for the year. And we're going to force feed him into every situation we possibly can. Yeah. That's, that's an indictment in itself on Richardson. I am curious though, when I look at those two

guys, Shane Stike and the head coach of the Colts and Chris Ballard, the GM of the Colts. Like, it's almost a make or break season for these guys like last year there was a lot of rumblings that Chris Ballard could be on the way out their general manager and usually when the GM gets canned

the coach goes with them I think like choosing to kind of hit your wagon to the Daniel Jones experiment really goes to show how desperate this team is right? Like because I think if they knew that they had

an opportunity to potentially be with this organization long term you think you'd have to ride with the Anthony Richardson train now right yeah because that's like you're investing in youth in the future and like building up this this player and saying like you know there's a lot of runway here anytime something like this happens it's like we're just kind of dealing with the here and now and we'll figure the rest out later so I don't know we'll see we'll see how it goes I'm sure as a Colts fan yeah I'm not you would please you would like to see it go better than a lot

of people think it's going to go it is a decent draft class in terms of quarterbacks I mean I mean, Arch Manning, who's down in Texas, like he's the nephew of Peyton and Eli. So, like, you know, Lucas Oils, the house that Manning built. That's kind of what they say. The house that manning built. This is where you're all, like, this crazy. I'm already looking at the draft? You're already looking at the draft.

Yeah, it's mock draft season. Who can we draft in the top five? That's where you're thinking already. Daniel Jones isn't leading this team to the playoffs, Frankie. It's not happening. It's just not going to happen. Like, I even as bad as the AFC South is, I say, it's just not going to. happen. They've got some question marks on the

offensive line. They lost their starting center. They lost their right guard. You know, they're filling them in with some guys they've drafted over the last couple of years. So you've got some question marks on the interior, you know, do they have a pass rush? Can they really defend that well? Last year they got carved

up in the secondary. There's a lot of question marks on this Colts team and, I mean, quarterback is still a major question mark. So we'll get into that a little bit with Mike Jones. Frankie, you got a little bit of a list that you've got to cook today. Yeah, when do you want the list?

Well, we can probably get to that list maybe in 20 minutes, possibly. Let's do it. We're going to do top five Team USA Camp Snubs. Snubs. So USA put out their Olympic camp roster, similar to what the Canadians did a few weeks ago, USA, a little behind the eight ball, I guess, on timing. They decided to get it right. Is that it?

They wanted to get it right? And you think they still got it wrong because there's still five snubs. I got five snubs for you. They got 44 guys coming to this camp, and you think there's at least five that are missing out. I found five just for you. I love it. I love it, Frankie. So we'll get to that in a little bit.

And then I got a list as well. We're going to go to list. I got a list as well. I'm looking at five emerging talents in the NHL. I figure we get some hockey talk in here with you in tow today. We need it. Yeah, it'll be fun. It'll be fun.

Mike DeSephano with Frank Carrado. Overdrive continues. On TSN 1050, live on TSN2, and on YouTube live. Claudia was leaving for her pickleball tournament. I've been visualizing my match all week. She was so focused on visualizing that she didn't see the column behind her car on her backhand side. Good thing, Claudia's with Intact.

The insurer with the largest network of auto service centers in the country. Everything was taken care of under one roof, and she was on her way in a rental car in no time. I made it to my tournament and lost in the first round. But you got there on time. Intact insurance. Your auto service ace. Certain conditions apply. Overdraft continues on TSN 1050, TSN2 and on YouTube live. Mike DeSepano filling in for Brian Hayes. Frank Carrotto in with me today.

And the Blue Jays coming off a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates last night. Paul Skeen's got to watch him play, got to see him in action. It's always great to see one of the best in the biz go to town. But we can't help but not talk about Tommy fans. coming off that game. But join us to talk about Skeens, Fam, and T. Up tonight's game against the Pirates is Noah Hiles. Pirates beat writer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

He'll be with us in just a moment. But isn't it wild how last night's game, we spent like five, ten minutes talking about the Tommy fam situation. Meanwhile, Paul Skeen's pitched last night. Paul Skeens looked pretty good. Cade eight Blue Jays, gave up a couple runs, Which, mind-blowing stat for you, Frankie. Those are the first earned runs that Paul Skeen got tagged with at home at PNC Park since June 3rd.

Dude, that's crazy. June 3rd, it is August 19th today. Since June 3rd, he hadn't given up an earned run at home. No, this guy, he's a machine. He's a full-on pitching machine. And it sucks that, like, he sucks that he plays on the pirates and he gets no run support. and it's just we're not going to see postseason ball with him for a very long time, but holy smokes, man, he is a treat to watch.

He's a treat to watch. And a guy who gets to watch him on a daily basis pretty well is Noah Howes, our guest right now, Pittsburgh Pirates, Beat Reporter, and a of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. How's going, Noah? Guys, thanks for having me on. Everything's going well. How's it for you guys?

We're doing well. We're just reacting to the situation. from last night. Tommy FAM, not quite sure what happened there. He ends up kind of doing a little bat flip after a four-pitch walk, goes back to speak to Tyler Hideman, bench is clear. There were some comments post-game that were puzzling, some tweets. I mean, what's the deal with this Tommy FAM guy?

I don't know. I mean, I feel like if anyone could answer that question in baseball, it would have been answered by now. I'll say this. If someone who's covered him this whole season, he seems like a good teammate. Like the players on the Pirates roster in the

clubhouse seem to like the guy. He just seems to have one of these episodes every year, at least one of them. And he's had multiple here in Pittsburgh with the altercation with the Angels fan earlier this year. There was something that happened in Detroit as well where he got

three fans ejected in the middle of a game once. It's interesting. It just seems like he does not have a high tolerance for things that upset him. Like you obviously cover the pirates and you see players come and go and, you know, we know the story with the pirates, there's not much of a payroll and the team can only be so good. Like, do you kind of get the sense every year that, you know, around this time of year,

middle of August, there's some frustration setting in with some of the players? I think so. I mean, I don't know if this is frustration-related. I think there's just Tommy fan being Tommy fan. He could have been having a great day, and this could have still happened. But, and if Tommy's listening, I'm not saying that as a slight. I'm just, you know, going off of a historic pattern here. But overall, yeah, I think it's been a very frustrating season for the pirates,

and they're just trying to find anything right now to get them up and, you know, get a little bit of motivation, extra motivation to play. But I don't think this was a product of the dog days of summer and ready for the season to be over type of thing. I just think this was, like I said, Tommy fan being Tommy fan. In conversation with Noah Hiles, Pittsburgh beat writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and we're also kind of admiring Paul Skeens and the fact that you get to watch him pitch every five days. Last night gave up a couple runs, but eight strikeouts against a team that doesn't strike out often in the Toronto Blue Jays.

I mean, how great is it to get to watch this guy on a daily basis? I mean, these are the guys when you get into sports journalism that you, hope to cover, right? Like, I was lucky enough I started covering this team last year. My first assignment after starting on the beat was driving to Louisville to watch him make his first AAA start. And I remember watching him pitch three innings in his first AAA start and texting my dad saying, this is the best pitcher I've ever seen in person.

And that, you know, when he gets up here, people are going to think, oh, you know, he could be okay, he could be good. And I was like, I don't think people understand how nasty this guy is on the mound. And I think people learn pretty quickly. It's a show every single time. I really like watching him pitch the most when he goes up against teams with a good lineup. Teams like the Blue Jays who are in first place right now, it feels like he finds an extra gear in those games.

He always seems to pitch well against teams like the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets, the Phillies, and, you know, the Blue Jays who are in first. first place, you know, you're going to get an A-game start from him. Well, I think it's also a conversation that happens a lot outside of Pittsburgh is, ah, get Paul Skeen's out of Pittsburgh, and, you know, there's a long history of the pirates not paying their players and opting to move them elsewhere, recoup some prospects, and try and rebuild again. What's the fear that the Paul Skeen's tenure in Pittsburgh won't be very long?

Oh, I mean, that's the main fear right now. That's why you're seeing so much frustration. express throughout the fan base is because people are worried that this is the time to add money to the payroll. They've had a payroll over $100 million before. They've had it up to $120, which still is not very high. But for here, I mean, that's all the fans are asking for. And the fact that their biggest free agent signing this past off season was Andrew Heaney in late February, and it was a $5.25 million deal. They haven't spent a ton of money in free agency over the last, I don't know, really ever, and if you're not going to do that, then you would at least like to see them invested in other areas, maybe extend some guys. And they haven't really come

close on that front since extending Mitch Keller a couple years ago either. So there's just a real question by the fans. So what's the commitment here? You have probably the best pitcher on the planet, and you have them at a very premium price. He's pre-arbitration for another year. And he's not the only good young pitcher in this organization. They have a lot of talented young arms. And that's the toughest thing to find in baseball, is affordable, productive, reliable pitching. And they have that box check, but they refuse to seemingly invest on the other side of the game. And it cost them a season. This season was over before it even began. And knowing that you only have six at most seasons with Paul Steen, probably less,

if you're going to trade them, you'd like to see them. You'd like to see that. him make the most of that opportunity because if you can get into the, if you can get this guy into the playoffs, he's someone, no one wants to face in a seven-game series, especially if it lines up where he gets to pitch two or three times. So fans are frustrated. I think players are frustrated. They're, I mean, he's set on record. He hopes to see the team do more this off season. Andrew McCutcheon expressed a similar thing. They've just got to go out and do it because they, like I said, no other team in baseball has this type of weapon. Well, I guess if you looked here in the ALE East, you would look at a team like the Rays

and say, well, that's a team that doesn't spend a ton of money, but they draft well, and they produce good talent, and they're a competitive team. And every once in a while, it just kind of pops off with not having to spend the way the Dodgers or the Mets spend, like not even really coming close to that. And that's something that I think would be very attainable for the pirates. And if you showed, like, you know the fan base, if you showed the fan base that, you'll see people, you know, go out to PNC Park, which is one of the most unbelievable stadiums in the majors.

And all of a sudden it's like, you know, that little investment in the grand scheme of things can do so much more for your organization, but I don't even think they get, like fans don't even see that happening, like Tampa Bay Rays level of investment. Yeah, I mean, they haven't signed a multi-year free agent since 2017.

You're not going to be a winning organization when that's a true sentence. I mean, they're general managers entering, you're six, and he still hasn't achieved that. He signed three big extensions, but, I mean, they're just so far behind on the financial side of it. And like you said, it doesn't take a ton to win. The best team in baseball right now, the Milwaukee Brewers, they're not doing this

with a huge payroll. What's their payroll? Like 115, 120, something like that. And, yeah, the raise have found ways to do it. Cleveland is always competitive. I mean, you could go down the list. Milwaukee, Oakland, a lot of small market teams. They find a way to compete.

You can have poor success as a front office, and you can be cheap. You can't be both. And that's kind of what's the problem for the pirates right now. With Noah Hiles, I'm always intrigued to get an outsider's perspective on the 2025 season that the Blue Jays have had. Do you view this team as as serious contenders? this year, Noah?

I think so. I think any time a team comes out of the ALEs, you have to take them seriously. I mean, that's because you're going up against two teams that are always seemingly in the mix with Boston and New York, and then, you know, Baltimore, that was my pick to win the World Series this year.

Well, shows what I know. I don't know why you guys are having me on the show after I said that. But, yeah, I'm impressed with Toronto. I think the investment they made in Guerrero, I think might have provided a little bit of a spark just to show. And, I mean, you're getting a lot out of some guys that you probably didn't expect to get

this much out of this year. And they're a fun team. They're, they, I was worried a little bit that when they got hot in July, that they might be peaking too early. But it seems like something they're able to sustain. And I'm excited to watch them in October. I have one of my really close friends is actually a big Blue Jays fan. So I would like to see them win for him.

We'd like to see him win as well. We'd definitely provide a lot more. content for us on this program. Noah really appreciate taking time to join today. Absolutely, guys. Make sure I have me on. Absolutely. Noah Hiles, Pirates Beatwriter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. And, yeah, like, it's got a stink to be a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. You get an all-star talent like Paul Skeen to get to watch and pitch, but you know that it's only going to last other two years because they're not going to pay him. Yeah. They're just not going to pay them. So it's like, do you know, do you bother?

they're going down to the park and getting invested in this team and getting invested into Paul Schoen's while you can, right? Like you'll go whenever he'll win every five games you're going to go? Well, not even one every five because you're going to be on the road. Right. So you'll go when Skeens is pitching at home. You'll also just go because that's one of the best ballparks

ever. Yeah. I haven't been, but it's on my bucket list of places to go, P and C. Yeah. I guess I saw a stat. Before yesterday, so prior to yesterday, 50% of his last 10 home start, the pirates have been blanked in 50% crazy the five of his 10 home starts last 10 the pirates have put up zero run support for him that the ownership group there has always been like a a contention spot for pirates fans just their their willingness to not unwillingness to spend money to invest in the team it sucks because you know that that's a that's obviously you know Pittsburgh man that's such a great sports town.

Oh, yeah. Steelers, Penguins, when Penguins were winning Stanley Cups, you don't think Penguins fans are dying to have, like, the glory days again. You know, Steelers fans are always going to be there. They're always going to be rowdy. They're crazy. But, like, that's the kind of sports town it is. But the pirates just get stifled because their ownership won't spend any money.

And now you got this golden ticket. And it doesn't take much, man. No one says you have to be the Mets or the Dodgers. Give them a playoff game. You can be better, you can be better than what you're doing. and yeah, and a guy like that, you put him in a playoff game, you're probably going to win that game.

Very good chance anyways. It's a lot to get there. Like, we're talking about a team that's 20 games below 500 at this point. Like, that is a lot of work to do on that roster to get to a playoff spot, even with the wild card being the way it is now. Like, they're light years away.

They're far away. I mean, the offense is terrible. A couple nice arms, of course, but the offense, not very good. Kegan Matheson actually tweeting out just moments ago, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Just has some inflammation in his left hamstring. Good news for the Blue Jays at this point,

and John Schneider sounded relieved. He's day-to-day, and they could potentially use the off day on Thursday. So not playing today, not in the lineup tonight. Sounds as though he won't be in the lineup as well tomorrow. And then with an off-date Thursday, maybe out and rest up that hamstring and get him going Friday when they start against the Miami Marlins, which, of course, will also be Shane Beaver's debut with the Toronto Blue Jays. That'll be a fun game on Friday, if that's the case.

The return of Laddie, Shane Bieber makes his start. That'll be a much anticipated game in Blue Jailant. All right, let's take a break. Let's come back. We're going to get to your list? Fire up a list. All right, we'll fire up a list. Still to come, Mike Jones, getting some NFL talk.

Rob Longley, get more updates on what's going on with the Blue Jays. So join us at 6.05 of Mike DiStefano and Frank. Corrado, you're listening to Overdrive on TSN2, on TSN-1050, and on YouTube Live. Claudia was leaving for her pickleball tournament. I've been visualizing my match all week. She was so focused on visualizing that she didn't see the column behind her car on her backhand side. Good thing, Claudia's with Intact. The insurer with the largest network of auto service centers in the country.

Everything was taken care of under one roof, and she was on her way in a rental car in no time. I made it to my tournament and lost in the first round. but you got there on time. Intact insurance, your auto service ace. Certain conditions apply. Overdraft continues on TSN 1050. TSN2, Mike DiStefano, Frank Corrado with you. And Team USA put out their Olympic list for the guys that they've invited to their camp.

That'll be underway in a couple of weeks, the Canadian, doing the exact same thing. Their camp kicks off a couple of weeks from now in a bid to, you know, see who. Who's got the chops to be an Olympian? Very excited to have Olympic hockey back, by the way. I'm excited beyond belief because it's been so long since we've had it. I know we had the nice little taste with the Four Nations, but the Olympics just brings it to a whole other level. Yeah, yeah.

And keep in mind this, like, it's going to be on NHL-sized ice, right? So there's not that whole conversation of, oh, do we have to take so-and-so because it's the big ice? Like, it's going to be similar to an NHL style. game every yeah it's not going to be four nations where they're fighting three seconds in but it's going to be an hl style anyway i haven't done a list this summer okay i haven't done was the first list i've i've done and keep in mind like there's probably the team's probably picked to a certain degree like we'll see how certain players play throughout the course of the year but with a 44 man

training cap roster we're talking about guys that are generally on the outside looking in but i came up with five guys that i think deserved a look at To at least be at camp. To at least be at camp. These are five guys. You ready? Camp snubs, if you will. Camp snubs.

I like it. All right. Number five, Nick Schmaltz of the Utah Mammoth. He's a good player. He's a versatile guy. He plays center, plays the wing. He's been a consistent producer. He's just, he's one of those guys that I think if you're looking for a little offense,

lower in the lineup, you can have them there. If you, for some reason, which I don't think you would, because they're really, really, really stacked and loaded up top. He can play with skilled players higher in the lineup. And just looking at who they picked, like there's some guys that you could say he's quite comparable with. Anyways, that's a guy who I think American guy

probably deserved a look. I have him at number five. All right. Nick Schmultz. He comes in at number five. I mean, he's had a couple of nice seasons out, was not in the desert anymore. Now he's out in Utah. He's in the mountains now.

But, yeah, they had career high last year. 63 points with Utah. Like the numbers don't blow you away. This is the thing with the numbers don't blow you away, but you watch him play, like role player. Like skilled guy, and I think you know, he would be able to play up and down. Might be one of those guys if you brought it into camp

and you watched him in a, you know, something like that. You're like, that guy's better than I thought. Yeah. He just kind of gets buried based on what he does the right things type of guy. If he stayed in Chicago the whole time, when they were humming, we might talk about him more. Right. Right. Like he kind of got to Chicago as they were on their, their little spiral.

Coming in at number four. Number four. Brock Besser of the Vancouver Canucks. Besser wasn't invited? I assume that he would have been you're right, he's not. Besser is not invited to this camp.

Here's the list right here. So I saw Brock Nelson and I think it just assumed that'd be Bessor. Brock Belser is not invited. He scored 40 goals two years ago. That's insane. Last year was a down year by his standards. But this is a guy who, yeah, he's not like the most fleet of foot.

But you need a goal. Like you need a guy who can play on the power play. Oh, yeah. Like Brock Besser, I think last year he had to find something just because the team wasn't playing very well offensively. Like I thought Brock Besser had to be a guy that went out and got the puck more. Like I think in the past it was more like, you know, J.T. Miller is going to fish it out or someone's going to do some of that grunt work and get to my spot, get ready to take a shot.

Like he had some goals where he had to like go behind the goal line, chug it out to the front of the nat like i think he he probably did some stuff that he wasn't necessarily accustomed to doing but brock best are like really skilled player and a guy that with with you know puck on his stick could be a difference maker absolutely that's a big snub to be at number four on your list i think that's a pretty big snub yeah all right so number three go ahead john carlson of the washington capitals yeah it's a good one john carlson is not on he's not invited to camp and i don't for the life of me understand why because john carlson played on a washington team last year, that was unbelievable.

He was playing 23 minutes a night. He's consistently been, you know, one of the most underrated defensemen for me anyways, when we talk about like the premier guys around the league. He's still got lots of game. And with John Carlson, we're not necessarily talking about, yeah, bring him to camp because in four years he could be on the team. We're talking about the here and now. Here and now, John Carlson, like, he could be on this team.

He could be a guy that you look at and say, we could find a spot for you. Well, we're taking a look right now up on TSN2, the defensemen that were brought to camp. So there were 16 defensemen brought to camp. And you try and look like your six guys you feel comfortable with, probably Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy, Jake Sanderson, Jacob Slavin, Zach Warensky, right? Brock Faber was really good. You put favor in there and that? Probably like, if I was picking eight guys, that's probably like favors in there. Yeah.

So I wonder if they just didn't even want to bother. him because they look at it and they want to bother him but and they want to get a look at some other young players but then why yonk or brett pesci but then okay so let's keep doing the list okay so i have john carlson at number three at number two i have thatcher dempco and him not being invited i have a few questions about that is that we asked if he wanted to come to the camp but he said that he's still dealing with some stuff and wants to be ready for the season in Vancouver because he's been banged up so much? Or do we not believe that he's capable anymore because of the injury and what he had to go through last year? So they invited Joey DeCord

who's a very good goaltender. Yeah. But over Thatcher Demko? Well, okay, so tell me if you if you disagree with this. Of all the American goaltenders and if they were healthy and playing at the top of their game and you needed one guy to win one game, who's got the best chance of doing that for you? I'm picking Thatcher Demko. Are you? I am. I am. I am. I think if, listen, everyone's healthy. Everyone's at the top of their game. Over Connor Hellebuck, win me one game. I think Thatcher Demko, when he's in the flow state, I think is the best American goalie. The thing is he hasn't been healthy. And because of that, he hasn't been overly, he hasn't been at the top of his game. Right. And that is a, you know, a big concern,

a question, like maybe, maybe he's not even ready to, like, be at this camp. Right. So that's the question mark for Vancouver. Yeah. That's a, anyway. So we got. A minute left. All right. Number one. Snub, you know who it is. It's Lane Hudson. Outrageous.

Lane Hudson was not invited to the USA camp. And that's one of those ones where I think you say, okay, you might not be on the team this year, but come be around the boys. Come be around Team USA. See what it's all about. 2030. He should be there.

He's been at the world juniors. He's been at the men's worlds. Like he's done the USA hockey banging the drum thing. And he just set all kinds of records this year. Most points by a rookie defenseman in Habs history. Moses this rookie defensemen and Habs history. history, tied Larry Murphy for an NHL record, most assists for

a rookie defenseman, and he doesn't make it. This is a head scratcher for me. Even if you think he's not going to be on this team, I think it's worth having him there because this guy, if he keeps putting up numbers that he did and they keep going up, he's knocking on the door in four years. And there's

guys you invited to this camp who are not going to be relevant in the grand scheme of things for this team in four years' time. So Lane Hudson's the biggest snub. It's a massive snub. I can't believe Someone's going to have to answer for it. Someone's going to have to answer. That's our list.

We'll get back into it. We will. We'll do that on that a little bit more. I got another list. Mike Jones going to join us next here on Overdrive. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by Fandul. FanDuel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. Seasoned gamer, or just video game curious, this week in gaming is the podcast for you.

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